“I like the balance of information and activity in this science curriculum for grades 3 through 6 that is presented within a single 295-page book. Developed by a homeschool mom, Christian Kids Explore Biology is set up, ideally, for two ninety-minute block sessions a week.

The first session each week is “teaching time.” It begins with reading and discussing the information from the text. Students complete a daily reading sheet (reproducible form in the appendix), write words and definitions for their vocabulary list in a notebook, possibly work with flashcards, and do extended reading or research.

The second session is “hands-on time” for experiments or activities. These don’t require expensive of exotic materials, but it will take a little work to gather the necessary items (e.g. brown pipe cleaner, magnifying glass, old T-shirts, face paints, alligator stickers). There are also some artistically done coloring pages – at least one per unit. Colored pencils are the perfect medium to use for these. The book has numerous smaller black-line illustrations that children might also color. Students should each maintain a three-ring binder in which they keep all of their science work, including coloring pages. You will need to select activities and adjust the amount of work required according to the ages and abilities of your children.”

. . . . . . . . . .

There are eight units with a number of lessons per unit-thirty-five lessons in all, so the curriculum should take one school year to complete. Vocabulary words and lists of materials needed are at the beginning of each unit. Each unit concludes with a review, a test, and a writing assignment.

A biblical worldview is presented throughout with the idea of God as the master designer a key theme. The first lesson advances a creationist perspective, although it takes no position on the age of the earth. However, recommended resource books tend toward a young-earth perspective.

“It takes a little time to explore the wealth of options found here. The first section, “Planning Your Destination,” suggests basic teaching methods, describes notebooks that students might create, and recommends basic supplies. Chapter 2 is a sort of primer course in geography-hopefully as a refresher for most of us. It covers basic terminology and concepts, including the five themes of geography identified by the national standards group for geography. Hogan and Wiggers show us how to incorporate the five themes into our studies. Next is a section on maps: different types, how to use them, map games, and more. All this is in just the first of six units!

The second unit focuses on fun, games, and food as tools for teaching and enjoying geography. Unit four presents what most people think of as the nuts and bolts of geography: lesson directions and data on geographical features, climate, vegetation, etc. Lesson ideas are divided into those for middle school and those for high school.

Reproducible maps and activity sheets for games, weather reports, research, and other activities described in this book comprise the next two sections. The final unit is all about creating a timeline and includes hundreds of reproducible figures for your own timeline.

In addition to all this, the book includes an answer key, a glossary, an index (very useful with a book such as this), and lists of additional resources you might want to use.

In my opinion this approach to geography will be far more interesting than a standard text on the subject. The fact that one book does it all for every grade level makes it even more appealing.”

So I’ve been going through two very different books about language. The first is Through the Looking Glassand the second is The Phantom Tollbooth. I’ll thank Luke for his insights into the former. What I find most intriguing about the two in their diametrically opposed stances about meaning. It amuses me how children’s literature can be so diverse.

Through the Looking Glass (the sequel to Alice in Wonderland, and home to such memorable characters as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, Humpty-Dumpty, and the Jabberwocky) takes place in a dream world where words and meanings are fluid, changing shape and purpose more frequently then a college student’s major. Alice, in her prim and proper world has a hard time reconciling her manners-and-rules based approach with the crazy game-world inside the looking glass. Nothing works, or makes sense the way it should. In fact, in the end she finally snaps and resorts to violence to solve her problems, which abruptly takes her back into the real world.

Phantom Tollbooth on the other hand is a whimsical story of a bored boy named Milo who journeys through the kingdoms of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis (and many others) to rescue the princesses of Rhyme and Reason. By rescuing them, he restores meaning to a world that’s been absurd ever since they left. Milo faces the logical consequences of not thinking, and learning to think about things from multiple angles. In his world, the world does make sense, it just takes a little imagination and wisdom to get used to it.

I hardly think there could be two more opposed views of meaning and language. Naturally, I favor the latter. The universe does have meaning, as does can language. If you take away the inherent meaning behind the world, you wind up where nothing makes sense, nor can it. Any explanation for anything is subject to the speaker’s own vocabulary which may or may not be related to your own. Subsequently, you can’t know what anyone means.

While language definitely changes, it’s not nearly as fluid as Alice would have us believe. The loss of meaning in modernism didn’t get anybody anywhere beyond Nihilism. The age of doubt that followed was an age of frustration and mucking about looking for a definitive proof that nothing was definitive. Looking back from the edge of postmodernism, I think it’s fairly clear that people do better with purpose and an understandable universe. Perhaps we were just built that way.

Thank you Mr. Carol, but I’ll keep my universe intelligible.

Teachers: If you are interested in these books for your high school students, check out the Bright Ideas Press study guides that accompany them here and here.